Battle Of Syni Vody:Beginning of the End for the Golden Horde?

The Battle of Syni Vody is first mentioned in written sources dating from the 14th-16th cc. In particular, the Golden Horde's shattering defeat is referred to in The Chronicles of Poland, Lithuania, Zhmud, and All Russia by Macej Strijkowski, first published in 1582. In 1430-40, the Battle of Syni Vody proved a subject surfacing even in political disputes between the Polish Kingdom and Lithuanian Grand Duchy as each sought historical causes justifying their claims to the lands of Podillia.

Yevhen Malaniuk, the ОmigrО poet born in Novoarkhanhelsk, by the river Syniukha had no doubt about the "Mongol-Tatars in our land" having been liquidated by "Grand Duke Algidras of Lithuania who defeated the khans' forces by the river of his childhood." Modern historians are more cautious in their estimates: they believe that asserting the place of that battle would be premature. There are other more or less convincing arguments from, among others, Nikolai Karamzin, Volodymyr Antonovych, and Mykhailo Hrushevsky.

There is one point on which these researchers seem to agree: the Battle of Syni Vody was part of large scale campaign waged against the Golden Horde in 1362, aimed at joining Kyiv and the adjoining territories to the Grand Lithuanian Duchy. Feliks Shbuldo, a Kyiv historian "restored" those events, claiming that "Lithuanian-Rus' forces" made two large raids on the Golden Horde; one taking them as far as the Don estuary on the Sea of Azov, and the other reaching that of the Dnipro and Southern Buh of which the Syniukha River [Syni Vody] was a tributary. Algirdas's military success was facilitated by strife within the Golden Horde.

It is quite possible that the key to many secrets of Syni Vody lies hidden in Torhovytsia, a village located on a steep bank of the Syniukha, over the arc formed by the river. In his chronicle Strijkowsky refers to Torhovytsia among the first towns liberated by Algidras. It is not surprising that the attention of those studying the Syni Vody problem has been drawn to this bewitching spot in the Ukrainian steppes. There is a regional research center organized at Kirovohrad's Vynnychenko Pedagogical University, specializing in the history of Central Ukraine (headed by Oleksiy Boichenko, Candidate of History). Last year it organized a conference in Kirovohrad, dedicated to the 635th anniversary of the Battle of Syni Vody. Archaeological expeditions have been dispatched to Torhovytsia for several years...

The history of this settlement has many secrets awaiting discovery. It is possible that in the fourteenth century it was a populated area under the Golden Horde, and some sources also refer to it as Syni Vody, using the same name as the river by which this town was located. Shabuldo thinks it possible that Syni Vody (Torhovytsia) could be identified with Yabu-Horod located somewhere in the Southern Buh basin, but far enough from the Black Sea. He considers this Yabu-Horod to have been the residence of the khan's palatine governing Golden Horde conquests west of the Dnipro (and the term yabhu denoted those palatines' title as blood relations of the rulers of all those steppe empires).

So what do the archaeological finds show? Is there material evidence pointing to the Battle of Syni Vody? The expedition that worked under Kirovohrad scholars Ninel Bokiy, Iryna Kozyr, and Oleksandr Demeshko discovered a burial mound near Torhovytsia with 21 burial sites. The mound was located by the river, which almost never happens. And almost no items of daily use or weapons. There were certain indications that that the mound could be that made for slaves, many of whom were seen in the streets of the fourteenth century city that was Torhovytsia's predecessor. Golden Horde warriors would herd their captives there. Who knows, maybe Yabu-Horod was a steppe version of [the Crimea's] Caffa. The most precious discovery was two silver and ten copper coins on which experts will have to work. They might turn out to have been minted under Khan Navruz.

Underground passages are discovered at Torhovytsia, sometimes causing village homes to cave in. Who dug them up and for what purpose? Maybe for all those slaves? And why is the land at Torhovytsia so rich in antique coins, now and then found by local residents in the least likely places? Say, back in 1980 a flood ruined the bank adjoining today's bridge spanning today's Syniukha, revealing masonry and coins scattered about, Perhaps Torhovytsia is a toponym chosen for a special purpose: it literally means "merchant routes crossing": water routes, the "fortified" character of the terrain, and geographical location making this place a convenient spot for setting up a huge fair.

Anthropologists will soon start studying the skeletons and sculls unearthed by the archaeologists. The coins may help clarify the chronology of events long since past. There were new expeditions. Probably somewhere in Turkey and Lithuania someone will discover written sources that will help uncover the secrets of the Battle of Syni Vody back in the fall of 1362, mirroring the victory of the Battle of Kulikovo.